John McCain’s Tax Cutting Record
February 14th, 2008 at 01:30pm Mark Noonan
Kevin Stach over at the Wall Street Journal notes that going back to McCain’s House days in 1983, he’s been a staunch, Reaganite tax-cutter with the one exception of President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts.
This just goes further into my view that McCain is, indeed, one of us - a movement conservative through and through. Sure, he’s done things which have upset the right, but none of us are like the left-wing robots who daren’t ever stray from the left-wing party line. The strength of our movement is that we allow for flexibility of viewpoints, as long as core principles are generally adhered to.
In the complaints about CFR and immigration reform, it should be borne in mind that cutting down on the influence of corrupt power-brokers and working out a way to deal with illegals already in country are good things. Perhaps McCain didn’t hit upon the right solution to either problem, but he’s at least willing to try and to risk his career for what he thinks is right. Meanwhile, Democrats shake at the knees that they might be found out as ardent liberals and they work day and night to obfuscate their records.
A lot of heated rhetoric has been launched this primary season and after a strong, fair fight, we have our GOP nominee - John McCain. Now it is time for a lot of calming down and realisation that in McCain, we have someone who is on our side in a way that neither Democratic candidate ever will be. In a President McCain we’ll have a President who will appoint good judges, who will fight against wasteful spending and who will lend a kind ear to tax cuts - when you add this to his clear desire for American victory in the War on Terrorism, the choice of what to do in November becomes completely clear.
UPDATE: Romney to endorse McCain today and as Romney is asking his delegates to vote for McCain at the convention, that puts McCain over the number needed for a first-ballot majority. When Huckabee gets back from his speech, he’ll probably withdraw. Wasn’t someone once saying something about a divided GOP?
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Republicans
14 Comments
1. plainjane | February 14th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
The strength of our movement is that we allow for flexibility of viewpoints February 14th, 2008 at 01:30pm Mark Noonan
McCain will be a formidable candidate, but in the end it will be the lack of flexibility from the Limbaughs, Faux News, Hannitys, Boltons and Kristols that will destroy his candidacy. They will force a pledge from him to support four more years of Bush polocies. His most recent vote in favor of torture is case in point. I can almost picture Ann Coutler’s keynote address at the Repug convention.
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2. Joe | February 14th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Mark,
To be fair, I want to give you credit. I have said often that you post more anti-Dem than pro-Repub posts. So I do give you credit where credit is due. A pro-McCain post (although it is really trying to convince others he is conservative-enough). But it is a pro-McCain post, so congrats.
Having said that……….. I would have no problem with a President McCain. I am glad to see that he can refuse the tax cuts when they were not the right thing to do. That tells me he does not simply fall in line with the party.
Now that he is the nominee, let’s see if that “Maverick” tag will hold or if he starts pandering and falling into line in order to get the conservative vote.. That will be the true test.
Another test is his VP candidate. You hate to say it, but the guy is 72 years old for cryin’ out loud. If he picks a VP that is similar to him, then great. If he picks someone for the sole purpose of picking up the far-right, then that is a whole other story.
3. John McCain » Blog &hellip | February 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
4. bagni | February 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
markromncain;
earthling mitt just endorsed mccain
there’s your ticket
mccain/romney in 08
will you vote for him w/enthusiasm now?
and secretly hope he passes in his sleep post election victory?
5. Almiranta | February 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
McCain has been all over the conservative spectrum, from conservative to extremely liberal to just plain nuts. (Amnesty? Give me a break. Since when did people break our laws so they could become Americans? They came here to work, so work out a guest worker program. But handing out citizenship?)
But no matter what his record—-and it has not been stellar—as a conservative, he is still better than the avowed Socialist policies which the two Dem candidates will try to impose upon us.
So he’s still the best of three options…….
6. bagni | February 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
mark
aliens are curious
how can you vote for someone who was against torture and is now for it?
oh
sorry….. cosmically confused
i got it backwards again
7. Obama2008 | February 14th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Appoint good judges?
You mean appoint far right ideologues that are out of touch with mainstream American values.
You Republicans seem to feel some inherent right to pack the Supreme Court with activists judges instead of those with a balanced and Constitutional legal outlook.
8. Taxes » John McCain&hellip | February 14th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today on John McCain’s Tax Cutting RecordHere’s a quick excerptKevin Stach over at the Wall Street Journal notes that going back to McCain’s House days in 1983, he’s been a staunch, Reaganite tax-cutter with the one exception of President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts. This just goes further into my view … [...]
9. Herkimer X. Arbuthnot | February 14th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Out of touch with mainstream values?
I thought judges were supposed to adjudicate based on the rule of law and not by popular .
What country do you live in?
10. Fmr Marine | February 14th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
>>>>>will you vote for him w/enthusiasm now?
and secretly hope he passes in his sleep post election victory?<<<<<<
MMMMMMMMMMM……..sure!
but only if he PROMISES to……………?
11. McLame \'08!!! | February 14th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
You mean appoint far right ideologues that are out of touch with mainstream American values.
Sorry, Osama2008, but your mainstream American values–gay marriage, abortion on demand, and condoms for 3rd-graders–are not what we normal people want.
Obama “mainstream?” He’s to the left of Lenin. Wake up!!!
12. McLame2008!!! | February 14th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I thought judges were supposed to adjudicate based on the rule of law and not by popular .
They are, but not according to UpChuck Schumer and the rest of the kooks.
baggie, I wisited your blog; now I know why you come here. You’re lonely…
13. clark smith | February 15th, 2008 at 12:36 am
The fact is that McCain, as a chief architect of the ‘Gang of 14,’ has probably done as much as any Republican in recent memory to thwart the appointing of good judges.
If McCain’s Senate career is any indication, we can expect his judicial nominees will—in all likelihood—be moderates of roughly O’Connoresque tenor.
14. clark smith | February 15th, 2008 at 12:48 am
“A movement conservative through and through?!!” You have got to be kidding me. If you called him a “spotty” conservative, I’d call you generous, but “through and through” is ridiculous, and an embarrassment.
Oh, right; so on principle you like mavericky McCain better than ‘right-wing robots’ like, say, Jim DeMint.
To follow this rationale, it’s bad for a Republican to have too high an ACU rating—it bespeaks sickening pander to the conservative base, right? Good thing McCain’s ACU rating has tumbled in recent years; No robot, he!
So McCain is at the same time a “conservative through and through,” and a man with the principled cojones to “stray from the [...] party line.” Well, which is it, Mark?—Rock-ribbed conservative, or Party deviant? Amazingly, to you he is both, rolled into one adorable mavericky fuzzball.
Mark, you are bending so far backwards to find rationale to tout McCain as something he so clearly is not, that objectivity at this site is going out the window.
Blogs For Victory is becoming a McCain ‘rah-rah’ site, and it greatly cheapens the site.
It’s one thing to implore fellow conservatives to hold their noses nose and vote McCain because the alternative is Clinton/Obama, but don’t insult our intelligence by claiming that Mr. I-spit-on-conservatives-except-when-in-campaign-mode is a “conservative through and through.”